GM working on technology to convert heat of the exhaust into energy
By Andrew C., 27 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
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General Motors took a $2.7 million federal award from the Department of Energy to work on the technology that seeks to convert the heat of the exhaust of a car into mechanical energy. GM said that the money will be used to conduct research into how Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) would generate electricity from the heat in automotive exhaust. Jan Aase, GM Vehicle Development Research Laboratory director, explained that when a stretched SMA wire is heated, it shrinks back to its pre-stretched length, and when it cools back down it becomes less stiff and can revert to the original shape. A loop of this wire could then be used to drive an electric generator to charge a battery. This concept has actually been known for about 30 years but the few devices that were built were too huge and inefficient to be practical. Alan Taub, GM vice president of global R&D said that the award is significant for the potential gains in energy efficiency and because it signifies how GM is doing business though collaboration and partnership.
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